It's seems to be fairly cut and dried that the backers of the petition drive blatantly and deliberately misstated facts, which is a violation of election law. But I'm not going to be the one holding the gavel and all of the pertinent data. We'll see.

The price tag for the San Francisco 49ers' new South Bay stadium has jumped to almost $1.2 billion, but the cost to the public appears to be going down.

The new figures, unveiled Friday in the project's final funding plan, include pricey new features added just before the stadium's groundbreaking next to Santa Clara's Great America amusement park: There's up to $50 million to bring fans the latest tech experience at the stadium of Silicon Valley.

But that's not the only new expense added to the ledger for a project that has already jumped from $937 million to more recent estimates of $1.02 billion.

The final costs include $78 million in loan interest and fees and more refined construction estimates now that contractors have submitted their bids to build the project that will bring the storied football franchise to the South Bay in 2014.

The San Francisco 49ers, Santa Clara elected officials and representatives and special guests will participate in an official groundbreaking ceremony at the new stadium site adjacent to Great America Park on Thursday, April 19, 2012 from 5-6:30 p.m. PT.

Due to make-ready construction work underway at the site and limited accessibility, the event will be limited to invited guests only.

The new stadium in Santa Clara is estimated to cost approximately $1.2 billion. Officials expect it to be a landmark for Silicon Valley in addition to its role as the new home to the San Francisco 49ers. The 1.85 million square foot facility will seat approximately 68,500 and feature an expected 165 luxury suites and 9,000 club seats. It will be designed with multi-purpose flexibility to host a wide range of events including, domestic and international soccer, college football, motocross, concerts and various civic events, and is expandable for major events such as the Super Bowl.

The 49ers will break ground on their new stadium on Thursday, and the team hopes that in four years the $1.02 billion facility will be the site of Super Bowl L (50). A team source said Friday that the 49ers plan to bid for that Super Bowl. If that is awarded to another city, they also will shoot for the following year's game.

The next three Super Bowls will be played in New Orleans, New Jersey and Glendale, Ariz. respectively. The next one to be awarded, Super Bowl L, will be played in February 2016. Teams are required to play two full seasons in their new venues before hosting a Super Bowl. The 49ers are increasingly confident that the yet-to-be-named stadium in Santa Clara will be ready for the start of the 2014 season.

According to the NFL, the process will begin this summer when interested cities apply to the Super Bowl Advisory Committee for an invitation to bid. The committee then decides on finalists at the owners meeting in October. A vote is expected to take place in May.

There is good reason to believe Santa Clara will get the bid. The NFL likes to place Super Bowls in new venues (see: Arlington, Texas in 2011) and the 49ers will have the shiniest and newest digs when Super Bowl L rolls around. There also would be a nice bit of symmetry. The first Super Bowl was played in California - in Los Angeles in 1967 - and one hasn't been held in the Golden State since the Raiders and Buccaneers squared off in San Diego in 2003.

The new Santa Clara stadium will hold 68,500 seats but can expand to 75,000 seats for special events. The NFL requires at least 70,000 seats for a Super Bowl. A ground-breaking ceremony is scheduled for Thursday.

That symmetry argument is a little thin. You could more easily argue that it should be held in the Coliseum again or (if you like geographic symmetry) on the OTHER coast.

But otherwise, SC seems likely to receive strong consideration.

The "symmetry" part makes perfect sense. Especially if you are a writer on the east coast, and spent about 45 seconds thinking about this article. Everybody knows that all of California is exactly the same, unlike such obviously differing places such as Queens and Brooklyn.

It's been 15 grueling years since a high school kid in Ohio symbolically spiked a football to celebrate his family winning a ballot measure that promised a new 49ers stadium in San Francisco.

Now all grown up and the CEO of the team he fell in love with as a kid, Jed York is ready to mark the beginning of the end to what has turned out to be a longer, bumpier ride to build a new stadium than he or anyone else expected. On Thursday, the Niners and the South Bay city of Santa Clara -- not San Francisco -- will symbolically break ground on the $1.2 billion home field next to Great America, setting the stage for the NFL's Silicon Valley debut in 2014.

We sat down for a wide-ranging interview with York to commemorate the historic moment. He talks about planning the "world's smartest stadium," what will be different from Candlestick Park ("everything"), why the team ultimately abandoned San Francisco (it was the only way to stay in the Bay Area) and how it will compare with other NFL home fields. Here's what he had to say:

Are you sad about leaving San Francisco?

It would have been different if we didn't try for close to nine years, making a concerted effort for such a long period of time. We had to finally come to the realization that if this doesn't work in San Francisco and we don't look elsewhere, at some point we're going to be out of options in the Bay Area. It was tough initially, but knowing that we couldn't find a way to make it happen in San Francisco, I don't have any regrets.

Did you look beyond Santa Clara?

We looked at close to 90 different locations, and hands-down Santa Clara was the best that we had seen. We looked anywhere from Sacramento to the fairgrounds in San Jose, trying to evaluate different sites in that 80-mile radius from San Francisco. We pursued Santa Clara so diligently because we wanted to make sure the option of leaving Northern California never came up.

Did you ever think we'd still be talking about this after San Francisco voters approved a new stadium there in 1997?

I was in high school in 1997, so that was my Uncle Eddie (DeBartolo Jr., the team's former owner) and (former team CEO) Carmen Policy looking at building a stadium in San Francisco in a shopping mall. I remember celebrating when they got that measure -- I thought that meant it was going to be built. Little did I know I would be there 15 years later, and that's how long it was going to take at a different site with a different project. I didn't expect that in 1997.

What do you think will be the identity of the new stadium?

Most people in Northern California don't like to stay indoors, so you want to incorporate nature and be outside, be able to see the beautiful mountains from the building. You need to be a sustainable building. I think we're going to really blow people's socks off with the food and beverages in this building, and the thing that ties this all together is technology. We want to make sure this is the smartest stadium anyone has ever seen. It has to be something that continues to grow with technology and time. We want to be great on day one, but we want to make sure this is something that continues to evolve, continues to grow, as technology changes and people's taste changes. I think people are going to say this is the best outdoor sports and entertainment experience they have ever seen.

So is this going to be the best stadium in the NFL?

I want to make this the best stadium for Northern California. That's different than a stadium in Dallas, New York or Green Bay -- the fan bases are different. Things are bigger in Texas, (huge Cowboys Stadium) is the way they try to build things. We want to do something similar here that captures our market, but it'll be different than the way the Cowboys did it in Arlington (Texas). Our fan base is on the cutting edge of culinary and technology; that's what you're trying to build for.

What's the biggest difference between this stadium and Candlestick Park?

Is everything too broad of an answer? You're almost doubling the amount of space for the same amount of people. You don't want to blast Candlestick for being an older building because there have been a lot of great moments there, but the new building is going to be a completely different experience. Instead of just making a nice hot dog, you can do 20 to 30 different items. It'll probably be a 50 percent quicker exit than what you see at Candlestick. You can't compete with that, being able to park easily and get to your car and out onto the freeway quicker or take public transit.

Are you going to try to create an overall shopping, food and entertainment destination around the stadium?

When you look at Great America, that's one of the things. We did a long-term deal with them, there will be great game-day entertainment, you can bring your kids and go to the amusement park beforehand, go to the convention center across the street. The stadium is going to be an anchor, and allow all the other entertainment activities that go on in Santa Clara to really be enhanced.

Is this a big deal for people who don't care about the 49ers?

I think it's going to be a big deal because this is something that will really bring the franchise into the 21st century. Whether you're watching at home or in the stadium or a casual fan who happens to read the headlines on Monday morning, this is something that's going to make the Bay Area a better place. There are a lot of iconic companies and brands and ideas in Silicon Valley, but I think this will be the iconic building of Silicon Valley.

Over the past year, you got married and your team surged to the NFC Championship game. So where does sealing the deal on the stadium rank?

I think in that standpoint it is similar when you talk about the stadium being like adding a family member. When my wife and I look back on this in 20 years, you'll be able to see the evolution of the stadium the same way as an evolution of a marriage. It's going to be a big piece for my life professionally and personally. It's a very big day, and it's going to be emotional and very gratifying.

It's fair to say that most people -- you, perhaps? -- figured the new San Francisco 49ers stadium in Santa Clara might never happen, or at least in our lifetimes.

But the Niners and Santa Clara officials are breaking ground on the $1.2 billion project Thursday, paving the way for the NFL's Silicon Valley debut in 2014. So how did we get here? We turned to the man who led the stadium effort, 49ers CEO Jed York.

In Monday's paper and our website, mercurynews.com/southbayfootball, we brought you the first part of our interview with York. Below is part two, with York walking us through how we arrived at this moment. The third and final installment, with York focusing on the future of the stadium, will be posted on our site Wednesday. We'll also have more coverage of the groundbreaking here and in the newspaper on Thursday and Friday.

Is it extra gratifying, knowing how long this took and how many people doubted this would ever get done?

I always believed that this was going to happen. You're always going to have doubters. I've said this since the beginning: The only way you're going to quiet doubters is to actually build the stadium.

Was there a big moment during the process that you think turned the tide toward making this a reality?

I don't know if there was a moment specifically, but being upfront with the voters in Santa Clara, going to people's living rooms, going through the long feasibility process, making sure the safeguards are in place, that's what makes something like this work. When you make sure you go through all the work to make sure everything is set and as good as it can possibly be. It's the hard work throughout.

What about the bad things -- anything you regret from the last decade?

The only thing that was a negative was the reaction from (former San Francisco) Mayor (Gavin) Newsom from the time. I think (current) Mayor (Ed) Lee has done a fantastic job of creating a relationship between the 49ers and the city of San Francisco. As the fans get more used to the idea that it's a reality you get rid of some of those feelings that were there. They've done a great job to make sure we are a representative of the city of San Francisco and the entire Bay Area.

What would most people be surprised about the drive to build a new stadium?

More than anything it takes a lot of hard work and determination. You'll run into a lot of roadblocks and you need to find a way to go over them, around them or through them. We were able to do that. Especially in California it's difficult to get a stadium built, a lot of people find out. You'll see that if you're upfront and honest and work with the community it works.

So that was the winning formula: Hard work, transparency and working with the community?

It had to be the recipe, when you look at some of the projects that come forth, and try to sneak things by, we had a very long process with the site, financial package, working in the city, making sure the environmental impact report came back so that it enhances the community as opposed to took away from the community. We didn't like taking any shortcuts. It might be frustrating at the time but when it's all said and done it makes it a better project. You're better doing that work on the front end and reap the benefits over the next 50 years.

What are people saying now that the stadium is a done deal?

It's so much different now than what people were saying in 2006 (when it was first proposed). Now it's almost like HP Pavilion, where it's hard to find anybody who voted against it 20 years ago, and that only passed (narrowly by voters). I think it's similar here. They see that it's a reality, that the city's general fund and tax base have been protected. It's hard to find a lot of opponents.

What about around the league -- what's the buzz about the project?

I think the league is ecstatic. This is the first stadium built just for pro football in the history of California. If you look at the other ones, Qualcomm Stadium (in San Diego) was for baseball, Candlestick Park was for baseball, the Coliseum in Oakland was built for baseball and mixed use. In Southern California, the Coliseum and Rose Bowl, those were for the Olympics and college sports. This is the first building just for pro football and it speaks volumes for the amount of work that went into it. California has been such a great market and we just haven't had the venues to host the great American sporting event (the Super Bowl).

What exactly are the challenges to building a stadium here compared to other states?

It's a combination: The amount of open space to build a stadium; California is more dense than the other states. The environmental laws are different, the political structure is different. So it takes a lot of time to get a development project done here, and that's just any project — not just a stadium.

How are things going with selling seats and the other financial obligations?

Things have been great, that was a big driving point to close the $850 million loan, and we received $200 million from the NFL. If we weren't on pace and ahead of pace for our sales target, I don't know if those things are going to be possible.

What's the latest on whether the Oakland Raiders could be playing games at the Santa Clara stadium?

Nothing new is happening there; the loan was for us. It doesn't change that this is a building that was voted on to be designed for (up to) two teams but nothing new has come up with the Raiders.

Are you going to apply later this year for Super Bowl 50, the next one available, set for 2016?

The NFL is going to take bids for Super Bowls 50 and 51 at the same time and want as many as possible to go for 50. We'll be in that and we hope we'll get one.

What do you think about your partners at Santa Clara City Hall?

The city of Santa Clara is just an unbelievable partner, and they work harder than just about any municipality I've come across. My hat's off to them.

The shovels are polished. The cameras are in position. Thursday will be the day the San Francisco 49ers and Santa Clara officials have anticipated for six years, as they break ground on a new NFL stadium.

The march to build the $1.2 billion stadium is just beginning, but it's never too early to speculate about what we can expect when the home field opens in 2014. So we turned to the man in charge, 49ers CEO Jed York.

On Monday and Tuesday, we brought you the first two parts of our interview with York, who led the stadium effort. Below is the third and final installment, with York explaining what fans can expect. We'll have more coverage of the groundbreaking online and in the newspaper on Thursday and Friday.

Describe the emotions you're expecting as you hit that first shovel into the dirt at the groundbreaking.

I think it's more of gratitude for all the hard work, from our team, from the folks in Santa Clara, from everybody who's helped from the political piece to the construction piece. It's just more gratitude than anything else.

Is this the South Bay's team now, or still San Francisco's?

I think we've always been Northern California's team and I don't think that's going to change. Where we play our games on Sunday, it's going to be a better experience and easier access than just about any other football stadium in the country. But we're always going to be the team from Northern California, and that's what we're trying to embrace with our new stadium.

What else besides 49ers games, can we look forward to at the stadium?

We will definitely do other things: soccer games, concerts -- with a 70,000-seat stadium there aren't a ton of acts that are going to play that as a one-off. But music festivals, multiple-stage concerts, we can enhance things in the parking lot; the amphitheater at Great America has some stages now so there are a lot of things we can do. One of the things we're really focusing on with the 49ers museum is really being a place you can check out the 49ers history but you also want to check out the Bay Area's history, check out what makes this a LEED-certified, a smarter stadium, a stadium that really uses zero energy from the grid for 10 football games a year. You want to be able to show kids how that works. A science teacher is going to want to bring their kids here, because they can see how a solar panel works, why does a green roof make sense. There's going to be a lot of cool things for kids to learn.

We have high standards for technology here -- what can people expect?

It's not putting something in there that's a hardware-driven stadium; you want to make sure it's a software-driven stadium. Smart phones in two years are going to be different than what they are today, the same with tablets. I'm not going to limit what HP, Apple, Google create. I just want to make sure that the experience is enhanced and you can use those devices to the fullest capability and beyond.

What will get your jaw to drop when you walk in?

Not one big thing, it will be how everything works together. It will be a ticket-less, cashless building, a building that is smarter than anything else that has been there. You have a home entertainment experience now and some people think it's better than actually being at the game. We want to make sure your experience at the stadium is better than anywhere, you can't possibly have a better experience. That's what's going to capture people's imaginations when you walk in, when you have your smart phones or tablets, they will work the way they do at work and home. You're going to connect with the game in a way people were not able to connect ever before. Sustainable needs to be for practicable purposes, not for show purposes — the simplicity of the design and how it works together.

What about the environment -- what will you have to offer there?

I think it's making sure the hot dog that is a staple food at any facility, you use an all-beef natural organic hot dog that has local flair to it, similar to restaurants here you have changing menu based on seasons. The hot dog will be there all year but you'll have things that'll change, different toppings on pizza like veggies that depend on the month, soups, fresh shell fish, being able to do that and make sure they're fresh and in-season and play on culinary experience, and update that based on the seasons and what's fresh and concentrate on fresh, local organic foods.

Do you feel like getting this thing built is akin to adding a member to your family?

I don't know if it's another member of my family but it's definitely going to have a special place in my heart. It is going to have its own brand and identify and be part of the 49ers and also have its own brand outside of the 49ers. It's going to be a place people are going to want to come to whether they're football fans or not. There aren't many iconic buildings in Silicon Valley. There are a lot of iconic companies and brands and ideas but I think this will be the iconic building of Silicon Valley. It will be a showplace for the best and latest technology. It's going to be a living, breathing organism that continues to grow and mature and get better and better with time.

The tone seems to be "we're shooting for a mediocre stadium, but the food will be good".

Should be interesting to see how the whole area works: parking, relations with Gt. America, the hotels, bars, new development.

I was thinking more along the lines of "we won't be anywhere close to a tacky garish monster like the Cowboys' stadium". But I would love to see this area become an entertainment mecca in the years to come. And I'm pretty sure that Great America is coming to the realization that this could be a very good thing.

I was thinking more along the lines of "we won't be anywhere close to a tacky garish monster like the Cowboys' stadium". But I would love to see this area become an entertainment mecca in the years to come. And I'm pretty sure that Great America is coming to the realization that this could be a very good thing.

This might sound odd, but I truly hope the new stadium incorporates redwoods around the perimeter. I think they are so typical Northern California, and this is the major metro area where they would really thrive. It'd be so epic, and it could even legitimize a subpar stadium.

This might sound odd, but I truly hope the new stadium incorporates redwoods around the perimeter. I think they are so typical Northern California, and this is the major metro area where they would really thrive. It'd be so epic, and it could even legitimize a subpar stadium.

It's a nice idea, but unworkable in this situation. Redwoods need a lot of water (which is why they cluster on the western slopes of mountain ranges), and have a very wide and shallow root system, which could cause a load of grief for the landscaping.